The Manning times. [volume] (Manning, Clarendon County, S.C.) 1884-current, 1887-04-20
Our Washington Letter.
From Our Own Correspondent
WASHINGTON, April is, 1887.

The work Of evangelizing the city Of Wash
! ington has commenced, and from the out
look will be vigorously prosecuted. The
pastors OF eighteen protestant churches have
| discussed the subject fraternally. and have
agreed upon a means Of systematic union
work in every section Of the Capital which
certain moralists have essayed to establish
rs the most ungcGly in the world.
and Washington is being D'ade better IN
ether ways. An old law on the District OF
! Columbia statut. books makes it unlawful
! for any person to keep omen any plac. OF bus
mess for the sale q any article OF profit on
Sunday, excepting apothecar!es, undertak-
erS, and BARRIERS. The Commissioners have
resurrected this law from its dusty tomb,
and propose to enforce 1t. IN other words
there will be no cigar stores open mex. Sun
dav, and news stands, ice.creala saloons,
lunch-roonls, etc, viii also be closed.
| 1t is difficult to see the drift of THIS action.
| Some people think that, since the day OF
blue law is over, the prohibitioni>ts have
gone little too far for their own good, that
there will be general howl Of Indignation,
q test case in which the District will proba-
blv be defeated and then the barrier will be
down.
I do not know that Washington needs any
more evancelizing labor expended upon it
than any other metropolis in the country,
despite the universal opinion outside that 1t
is a perfect cesspool OF lniquity. The Cap
ital IS not vicious city. 1t is not an i'm
moral CITY. 1t is really not in as bad e way
| by half as the agitators would make It out
to be.
There are no gambling houses here. At
one time faro and all other games OF chance
which ruined the life and business advance
ment of many man were IN full blast, but
they were completely wiped out some years
ago. During the past winter some adven-
turers opened o gambling house here for bus
mess, but within TWO days their establish
ment was vacated There are no profession
al poker rooms in existence here. do not
mean that pokeris not played, for 1t IS, to a
considerable extent during the so-cailed So
cial season, but 1t is not licensed.
1t has been said in other cities that their
was no artistic or musical atmosphere II
Washington; that politics and society alb
sorbed every faculty and interest. Wash
ington does lunch and dine and visit great
deal and politics do bang es a sort OF Old
! Nan OF the Sea about its neck. but is more
| than the political and social capital OF the
greatest republic the world has ever seen.
| Every national interest centerS here, and
! every phase OF national life is represented
here rs is also the intellect, and culture and
patriotism Of q continent.
/ The great social whirl begins on New
Years Day, and subsidies with the advent OF
! Lent During that season with the fashion
! able people and official entertainers, calls
and visIting-cards fill up the mornings.
Calls, receptions, and visiting cards crowd
the afternoons. Calls receptions, and Wis
iting cards jam the evenings and nights un-
til next morning every day.
Ii every day were a Week long and every
week a month long, there would still not be
time enough for all the calls, receptions,
visiting cards, breakfasts, luncheons, din
ners and teas, which constitute the occupa-
ton of a certain element Of society here.
But amid this social maelstrom, one meets
more famous men and women, statesmen,
orators, soldiers, and scholars, more people
worth knowing and remembering, than in
any other CITY in America, or in all its cities
combined
And taken all in all, for It's size, its cosmo-
politan population, it may be said that
Washington IS good city in point Of NOR
ais. Still it has been SO much and SO long
misrepresentcd, that it will be very difficult
to remove sr4ch widely spread, erroneous
impression
Among It's latest charities is the establish,
ment of !. .Home" the object CT which is to
protect and provide for young women who
come lere expecting to get work ana fail &c
do 50. \ number OF prominent ladies and
gen tlemen have organized themselves into
az. Association for the establishment OF this
, Home, which will be the means ofprcvent'
ing un.oll suffering and degradation. No'
men come here seeking employment from
every Quarter of the United States Of course
: many Of them arc disappointed. Scarce ~ q
day passes that the police are 10: called on